Saturday 12th November 2020 will be ingrained in Josh Wright’s memory forever.
“I was just driving in the van and I was on the inside lane of the M1 and I blacked out,” former Ossett Albion captain Wright slowly says as he details the terrifying moment his world was turned was turned upside down.
“I woke up on the central reservation about a minute later.
“I’d had a transient resin disturbance which had caused my heart to miss a few beats.
“It could have been a lot worse.
“I went across all three lanes. I could have killed another family. Anything could have happened.
“I was doing 65mph in a van and I had nobody with me.”
Barnsley-based Wright, 32, spent a week in a hospital and he faced an anxious few months before being diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a rare condition which usually affects the lungs and skin.
Life has only just returned to some form for normality in the past four weeks for the ex-Darlington, Hatfield Main, Pontefract Collieries, Emley, Staveley Miners Welfare and Stocksbridge Park Steels midfielder and one-time Worsbrough Bridge manager who has announced his retirement from playing to focus on his health, family and a law degree.
He is speaking to Non League Yorkshire more than 24 hours before the shocking events involving Christian Eriksen at Euro 2020.
Wright’s now back at work and has his driving licence back and he wants to raise awareness of sarcoidosis and open up on the challenging time and its effects on his loved ones, his wife Kaye and their five children.
“Kaye has been phenomenal and a rock,” he says.
“She’s kept me together and the family together.
“It has been a really tough eight months.
“I only returned to work last week.
“I have it (sarcoidosis) within the tubes in my lungs. I get granulomas in my lungs so basically I have scar tissue down my left lung.
“I had to go on steroid treatment which obviously shuts down your immune system completely.
“With the current pandemic I had to wait for both jabs before I could return to work.
“It has been mentally difficult because I’ve had to isolate all the time and it has been tough on my family.”
Uncertainty describes everyone’s lives since March 2020, but Wright had the double-whammy of a long waiting game for a prognosis of the full extent of his health problems.
“I went for a CT scan in Leeds and they found that my lymph nodes in my lungs had doubled in size,” he says.
“That was on the 4th January. I had them rescanned on the 1st February and they had growth to 35mil.
“So I was rushed in front of a respiratory specialist literally ten days later.
“They told me I either had sarcoidosis or a form of non-hodgkin’s lymphoma or possible blood cancer.
“I had a bronchoscopy a week later and I got the diagnosis of sarcoidosis a few days after that.
“It is a rare autoimmune disease. I think there’s 350,000 people with it in the UK and 90% tend to be over the age of 60.
“My GP has 12,000 under her and I’m only one under the age of 35 with sarcoidosis.
“They said my heart muscles were alright and they told me to carry on with the beta blockers, but they said there was no lasting damage to it.
“It is sarcoidosis which I have to live with for the rest of my life.”
Physically activity is encouraged to sufferers of sarcoidosis.
So Wright, who spent the aborted 2020/21 campaign with Hemsworth Miners Welfare under (joint managers) Luke Danville and Luke Potter, retained hopes of starting the new season in July.
However, several recent set-backs led to a heart-to-heart with wife Kaye and the difficult decision of retiring was made.
“I got fit myself and I was ready to get back playing,” he says.
“They tell you to increase your lung capacity as much as possible so I’ve been going out running.
“But I’ve picked up two chest infections in the last two months.
“Hay-fever is here so that affects me straightaway so I’ve got a nasty cough and I’ve had to go on another dose of steroids.
“I sat down with Kaye and she said ‘we’ve followed you around for the best part of 14 years and your health is not great’.
“You go into remission it and you might have five years where you have no flare ups, but then you could have one that hits you.
“At the minute I struggle with a bit of fatigue.
“So we had a discussion and I decided my time playing football was up for me.
“I owe to my family to be as healthy as I can be and be at home and be a family man.
“I need to spend time with them. My eldest lad has decided to play football and I need to look after myself physically.
“Out of respect to managers like (Luke) Danville and (Luke Potter) Potts or any Non League manager wanting to sign me, I can’t give the guarantee that I can give the commitment needed.
“I might wake up one Saturday morning and I might not to be well.
“I can’t just turn round and say ‘sorry’.
“Sarcoidosis is treatable and I can be fit and well for months, but you’re one morning away from waking up from it flaring up and affecting you.”
Wright has flirted with retirement before returning to the field as the itch was still there to scratch.
But there’ll be no Non League comeback this time.
“I’m content now,” he insists.
“I know I’ve had a couple of goes at not playing anymore, but I was never content.
“I’m happy with what I’ve done and I know the time is right.
“I’ve played for some great clubs, played under some brilliant managers and some not so good managers and I’ve played with some great players.
“I’ve some great mates like Jonathan Groome and Adam Jones.
“My Football League debut will stick with me for the rest of my life.
“I made my League debut at 17 for Darlington. Dave Penney gave me it on Boxing Day 2006 and it was against Mansfield.
“At Non League level being club captain at Ossett Albion meant something to me.
“Keeping Worsbrough up (in 2017) is another highlight.
“That was a no hope situation when I took over there.
“They had completely gone so for me to keep them up was a big achievement.”
The boots are hung up, but Wright is leaving the door ajar for a potential return to the game in the future.
“I’m studying for a law degree and I’m going to sit my football agent’s paper next year,” he says.
“Not many people think I’ve got the brains for the law degree but it turns out I have because I got 95% and 75% in my first two exams!
“I’m going to try and stay in football, but I’m going to take a different look at it.
“I’m sure one day I’ll probably manage again, but it won’t be for a few years until I’ve got my health under control.”
It is eight months since that traumatic day in November and let’s hope the only way is up for Wright and his family.
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams.
Our work is playing an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.
